Autonomous vehicles carrying containers: [1] (Video is sped up). Most of the hardware for this already exists, and is in use at the more advanced ports for moving containers around within the port and sorting them. Major ports today are very automated.
The latest fad is "dry ports". This is a bigger version of what used to be called an "intermodal facility", a place where containers are transferred from trains to trucks. The long distance portion of the trip is by rail, and then there's a transfer to trucks for the last ten or hundred miles. That, in practice, is how this problem is solved.
The latest fad is "dry ports". This is a bigger version of what used to be called an "intermodal facility", a place where containers are transferred from trains to trucks. The long distance portion of the trip is by rail, and then there's a transfer to trucks for the last ten or hundred miles. That, in practice, is how this problem is solved.
[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zm_rlLyelQo